


Stronger: After Taris

by Lyrishadow



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:34:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26301265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrishadow/pseuds/Lyrishadow
Summary: Part of Khahira's story, and the start of having Torian around.
Relationships: Female Bounty Hunter/Torian Cadera
Kudos: 4





	Stronger: After Taris

**Author's Note:**

> Part of Stronger, Khahira's story but written out of sequence it is a stand-alone for now.

The fact that she felt more done in than victorious was a testament to having witnessed the death of a once-great clan leader, a mix of anger that his actions were visited so harshly on his son, and a sense of loss when Torian left her at the end of the hunt. Khahira was not the kind of person who enjoyed lingering on things like shame or loss. She would have to get over it fast because with access to the blacklist she would not be hurting for challenging jobs. She waited for the Mandalorians to claim the body of Jicoln Cadera, her arms crossed over her chest her expression passive, no readable sign that she was replaying events in her head.  
"We are here for the traitor." Jogo, whom she had met on Dromund Kaas was leading the group. She noticed Torian standing a little got the back with but separate, he remained as the others went to the hold.  
"Champion, I want to ask a favor."  
She nodded shortly. He had helped her how could she say no?  
" I want to travel with you. Join in on your hunts, gain honor for my clan."  
" Couldn't get enough of me on Taris?" She smiled slightly, a teasing tone in her voice.  
"Guess not …. " his reply accompanied by a furtive glance and slight blush. Well well.  
" Sure, it will be fun." She nodded.  
"I intend to prove my worth." He added as he moved to stand with her.  
" We are done." Jogo returned, Khahira narrowed her eyes slightly at the boy. " Coming Torian?"  
"No."  
" You can finally show your face and you go running off. Make, something of yourself arrutii." Jogo stated as they left, a slightly unkind tone to his voice.  
Khahira stored the word for later, nodding to the door of the ship. On entering Mako volunteered to show Torian around. 

Later, after they had gotten underway, Khahira made a check of the ship. As usual, Mako nodded to her from where she was keeping an eye on their journey and any data that was coming in.  
“ Going okay?”  
“ How do you do that…?” Mako turned to face her friend and boss with a frown.  
“ Do what?”  
“ Make Durasteel look good…”  
“ Oh, honey…” Khahira laughed “ I don’t think this looks good, most guys just like the idea of something different I guess.”  
“ You are that.” Mako grinned.  
“ Maybe, I wasn’t once. I was just normal. Life has a habit of changing you.” Khahira shrugged.  
“ You should let your hair out of the thing you do to it.” Mako squinted at her “ You might be surprised.”  
“I will try it,” Khahira winked at her friend, as she removed the leather strap she used to tie her hair up“ Just for you.”  
“Nice!” Mako clapped approvingly.  
“Back to work for me..” Mako was the kind of person Khahira wished was her sister, because she was a bright spot in this whole adventure, and even with the darkness of Taris behind them, Khahira felt something was wrong, and that feeling wouldn’t leave her. She changed her clothes and went to check on the rest of the crew.

Gualt was, not really her favorite if she was honest, he wasn’t bad exactly but there was a shifty smuggler kind of vibe about him - and he had a role in the hyperspace war which saw the Mandalorians lose their choke on Coruscant - and lose the fight. While Khahira was not sure what to think of the man, he sometimes provided entertainment, was not a bad shot, and so he had a berth on their small ship.  
He complained a lot. He liked things quite exact for sleeping, and so he often slept in the med bay rather than the bunks with the others. So the med bay was where Khahira found him, chirping over a small collection on a rough cloth in front of him.  
“What have you done?”  
“No hello?” Gault raised an eyebrow, for a Devaronian he was surprisingly agile. Admittedly the Devonian Khahira had dealt with in the past had been too drunk to be of any interest to her.  
“I acquired a few artifacts when we went to that library museum on Alderan.” He lifted a shard of pottery reverently “ I intend to sell these items and get a nice profit from it. Prove to you how easy it is.”  
“Won’t they potentially only be of interest to Alderan?”  
“Of course!” Gault grinned like a child with a chocolate bar he found in the fridge “That’s the whole point, sell them back to the people I stole them from. Eh borrowed? No acquired…”  
“ It’s all in the spin…” Khahira said sarcastically she wasn’t completely opposed to the scheme, the people on Alderan were a terrible bunch, and she was never opposed to relieving them of some of their not very hard-earned money.  
“ I suppose.” She said with a sigh “ Just be careful. Stars you are trouble enough, we don’t need to find more of it to bring back.”  
“ Okay, M’lady, let me prove this to you.” He lifted another object, a gold something from the cloth, “These trinkets will net a profit with less risk than walking into a door.” 

She shook her head as she moved away. Sometimes she marveled that she lived this life, other times she quietly wished to be back in her adopted Father’s household. Still, it was worth the trouble to see the galaxy, and to be free and safe from the danger of sith politics.  
“ Torian?” she asked as she came around the corner and the young man was sitting leaning against the wall.  
“Sorry,” he said, instantly standing to attention. He must have gotten into trouble serving with the Mandalorians often enough that he instantly was in form.  
“No no, it’s fine, mind if I join you?”  
He hesitated a second as if trying to make the transition from soldier to crewmate. For Khahira there was something delightfully innocent in how he chose to relax to his spot on the floor and gestured to her to join him.  
"How are you doing? I know things got strange on Taris." Strange was probably an understatement it was not every day you are faced with killing your own father.  
"I’m not sure.” Torian leaned back and closed his eyes as he continued talking, affording Khahira a rare chance to get a close look at him. He was a serious young man, first impressions she had was that he was around eighteen, a good six years her junior, and entirely the ‘kid’ she had referred to him as. He had however been through hell from the moment he was a toddler.  
“ It was a big deal.” Khahira acknowledged. “If I knew who my parents were I am sure I would understand better.” her offer of a little of her own story, in exchange for his. If he took it, she would be willing to stand between him and danger for eternity  
“ It was not what I expected.” he replied, “ I don’t even know now what it was I hoped for?”  
“ A quick end?” she asked.  
“ For me?” Torian opened his eyes and she was met with wide blue, clear eyes almost investigating her.  
“Maybe? But definitely for the burdens, you carry.”  
“You might be right.” he shifted so that he was more facing her before he bowed his head in acknowledgment “Without you there, I might have… could have, died.”  
“ And? Did you plan for that?”  
“ No.” his reply was short “I planned to reclaim my clan, to stop people like Jogo making fun of it, making fun of me..”  
“Happened a lot?”  
“No-one missed me when I left, not enough to come after me.” he reminded her, though she knew his commander had. “I want to be… stronger? Better? I don’t know but it started with his death, I just …”  
“Hadn’t planned on it being personal?”  
“You are odd for a hunter.,” he said staring at her, not answering the question with words but his look confirmed she had been correct.  
“ I get that a lot.” she laughed “I tend to see things people miss and miss things some people see - Mako will tell you I sometimes miss the obvious.”  
“You track pretty well.” he conceded “Though you get sidetracked a lot too.”  
“That is pretty accurate.” she nodded with a smile, then turned to the boy next to her with a serious expression “Avoiding pain does not make it go away.”  
“No, I guess not.”  
“I have tried, take it from me, avoiding it makes it worse. Even if you don’t understand it, you are allowed to grieve for the father you never had. As for the reclaiming honor? I think you did that from the second you started helping me you showed honor to me, my clan, my mission.” she paused and took a deep breath before adding in a rush “and it is extremely attractive that you did so.”  
“What were you avoiding?” he asked curiously, giving her the less awkward way out of what she had just said.  
“I was apparently kidnapped as a child, and found on an abandoned cruiser by my adopted father- a pureblood Sith, may he rest in peace.” she exhaled “During my childhood after I was adopted, I was kidnapped a further four times by my father’s enemies, at which point he sent me away. I thought I had done something very wrong, or he was ashamed of me.” she shook her head slightly “I stopped talking to him.”  
“Doesn’t sound like...avoiding?”  
“Oh it is, I am just the other side of it, now I have to deal with the fact he is dead and left me his estate - not that I wanted it - and expected me to somehow become the beautiful Lady of the mansion, which - “ she gestured to herself, scars, cybernetics, a gun oil-stained t-shirt, and the pants that she wore on the ship hardly lending themselves to be attractive or ladylike. “I am obviously not.”  
“You are beautiful though.” she almost didn’t hear him as he murmured it. “I mean you are attract…” he covered his face.  
“ You… find me beautiful or attractive?” she wasn’t annoyed by the words but curious, and a little stunned.  
“Yes.” he paused as if considering whether to confess or not, and in the end, he sighed and kept going “ From the moment you walked up the steps to the grand melee, and then up to the campfire where we were for hunting.”  
“Thank you Torian.” she sighed and leaned back on her hands. This wasn’t a bad spot for a chat after all.  
“I’m not here to pursue you,” the words came out kind of strangled as if it was more to himself than to her.  
“Let’s see what happens” she smiled at him still amazed anyone would think she was any kind of attractive, and keen to end his embarrassment before it registered she stood up.  
“You have nothing to prove to me, Torian, I look forward to hunting with you.”  
“Thank you. It means a lot.” He stood once again at attention in the form she had seen earlier.


End file.
